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Jun 30, 2022

What is Shadow IT and why is it so risky?

Posted by in categories: internet, security

Shadow IT refers to the practice of users deploying unauthorized technology resources in order to circumvent their IT department. Users may resort to using shadow IT practices when they feel that existing IT policies are too restrictive or get in the way of them being able to do their jobs effectively.

An old school phenomenon

Shadow IT is not new. There have been countless examples of widespread shadow IT use over the years. In the early 2000s, for example, many organizations were reluctant to adopt Wi-Fi for fear that it could undermine their security efforts. However, users wanted the convenience of wireless device usage and often deployed wireless access points without the IT department’s knowledge or consent.

Jun 30, 2022

Ex-Canadian Government Employee Pleads Guilty Over NetWalker Ransomware Attacks

Posted by in categories: cybercrime/malcode, government

A former Canadian government employee pleaded guilty in the U.S. to charges related to his involvement with the NetWalker ransomware syndicate.

Jun 30, 2022

New YTStealer Malware Aims to Hijack Accounts of YouTube Content Creators

Posted by in category: cybercrime/malcode

Researchers are warning about a new YouTube hijacking malware, dubbed YTStealer, believed to be sold as a service on the dark web.

Jun 30, 2022

New ‘FabricScape’ Bug in Microsoft Azure Service Fabric Impacts Linux Workloads

Posted by in category: computing

Researchers reveal details about a new vulnerability in Microsoft’s Service Fabric that could be exploited to gain elevated privileges on Linux.

Jun 30, 2022

CISA Warns of Active Exploitation of ‘PwnKit’ Linux Vulnerability in the Wild

Posted by in category: cybercrime/malcode

U.S. cybersecurity agency CISA has added the PwnKit Linux vulnerability to its catalog of known exploited vulnerabilities.

Jun 30, 2022

Better, Stronger, Faster: The Future of the Bionic Body

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, chemistry, cyborgs, engineering, mobile phones, neuroscience, transhumanism

In the future, a woman with a spinal cord injury could make a full recovery; a baby with a weak heart could pump his own blood. How close are we today to the bold promise of bionics—and could this technology be used to improve normal human functions, as well as to repair us? Join Bill Blakemore, John Donoghue, Jennifer French, Joseph J. Fins, and P. Hunter Peckham at “Better, Stronger, Faster,” part of the Big Ideas Series, as they explore the unfolding future of embedded technology.

This program is part of the Big Ideas Series, made possible with support from the John Templeton Foundation.

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Jun 30, 2022

It’s Alive, But Is It Life: Synthetic Biology and the Future of Creation

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, biotech/medical, genetics

For decades, biologists have read and edited DNA, the code of life. Revolutionary developments are giving scientists the power to write it. Instead of tinkering with existing life forms, synthetic biologists may be on the verge of writing the DNA of a living organism from scratch. In the next decade, according to some, we may even see the first synthetic human genome. Join a distinguished group of synthetic biologists, geneticists and bioengineers who are edging closer to breathing life into matter.

This program is part of the Big Ideas Series, made possible with support from the John Templeton Foundation.

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Jun 30, 2022

Consciousness: Explored and Explained

Posted by in categories: futurism, neuroscience

Consciousness is a terrible curse. Or so says a character in screenwriter/director Charlie Kaufman’s Being John Malkovich. Part theater of the absurd and part neuroscience fiction, the Oscar-winning filmmaker’s work captures the splintering between what we perceive and what we feel as our brains grapple with multiple layers of reality. Neuroscientist Giulio Tononi, one of the world’s leading sleep researchers, casts new light on the science of the mind, probing where and how consciousness is generated in the brain. Watch this spellbinding conversation between Kaufman, Tononi, and moderator Alan Alda as they explore and explain the art, science, and mystery of consciousness.

The World Science Festival gathers great minds in science and the arts to produce live and digital content that allows a broad general audience to engage with scientific discoveries. Our mission is to cultivate a general public informed by science, inspired by its wonder, convinced of its value, and prepared to engage with its implications for the future.

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Jun 30, 2022

World’s first full-scale planetary defense test against potential asteroid impacts

Posted by in categories: asteroid/comet impacts, existential risks

A giant asteroid’s impact is considered the likely cause of the mass extinction of the dinosaurs almost 66 million years ago.

While there is no potential harm from an asteroid on the Earth at present, it is still important to keep our defense system ready in order to prevent catastrophic consequences such as impacts by deflecting trajectories of asteroids if one is ever discovered.

With this aim, NASA launched the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission, the world’s first planetary defense test mission, last November. DART is the first-ever mission dedicated to investigating and demonstrating one method of asteroid deflection by changing an asteroid’s motion in space through kinetic impact. In summary, it is to collide with an asteroid and deflect it from its orbit in order to provide valuable information for the development of such a planetary defense system.

Jun 30, 2022

Interstellar Travel Challenges

Posted by in category: space travel

This episode focuses on many of the problems with travel between stars at relativistic velocities, like collision avoidance, radiation, ship geometry, armor, and point-defense.

We will also look at some of the possible engine types and discuss realistic maximum speeds they offer.

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